Television-based entertainment systems are expanding the programming and services that they offer. In addition to television programs such as those found on broadcast and traditional cable networks, television service providers are adding interactive services and features. These television service providers, such as cable and satellite television providers, are utilizing the increased functionality that is enabled as digital components are added to devices operating in such television-based entertainment systems. These digital components, while not necessarily required, facilitate the implementation of interactive services and features such as electronic program guides (EPGs), digital program recording using an EPG, e-mail capability, information that overlays regular programming, web-surfing, real-time chats, image displaying, game playing, and so forth.
The software and other data information that powers the above enumerated and other services and features are typically referred to collectively as applications in television-based entertainment systems. Television content and applications are downloaded over a television-based entertainment network for display, use, and/or storage on viewer-side set-top boxes or similar digital devices. For example, one or more applications may be employed on a set-top box to provide an EPG to a user.
A complete EPG typically has horizontal and vertical lines, with different horizontal lines of information corresponding to different channels and different vertical “lines” of information corresponding to different time slots or segments at which television programming is scheduled to be broadcast. With the expansion of the number of channels that are available, as well as the great number of hours over a day, a week, or longer, usually only a fraction of the total EPG is displayable at any given time. Consequently, a viewer or user is given the ability to scroll through the EPG in the channel domain and in the time domain.
Accordingly, for television-based entertainment systems, there is a need for techniques and schemes to enable users to scroll horizontally, vertically, and around an EPG regardless of the relative simplicity or complexity of the viewer-side television-based device.